At long last, a parking garage downtown? Maybe.

It is a little too early to tell if folks can bank on zipping into a parking garage in Ocala's downtown, but the prospect is looking a little brighter.

By Susan Latham CarrStaff writer

It is a little too early to tell if folks can bank on zipping into a parking garage in Ocala's downtown, but the prospect is looking a little brighter.New Horizons, LLC, a group of local businessmen, has purchased the Bank of America building at 35 SE First Street and is considering turning the parking lot into a multi-level parking garage."It closed last week," said Billy Scheel, who owns the building along with partners Randy McCoy and Louis Saig, of the closure the week of Nov. 11."We just closed on it, so we will be approaching the city to see how big their interest is," Scheel said this week.The group bought the building, the parking lot that lies west of Osceola Avenue and north of Fort King Street, and the bank drive-thru from Gramercy Property Trust Inc. in New York City for $3.3 million.Scheel said the bank building and drive-thru will remain as they are."We have two very good tenants, the Federal prosecutors, and the Bank of America on the first two floors," Scheel said. "We plan no changes there. In the bank parking lot, we are hoping to work something with the city to put a parking garage in there, so our tenants would have covered parking and the city would have additional parking downtown. By doing that, we are, hopefully, getting some developers to do a hotel and/or retail across the street on the old chamber lot."Scheel said New Horizons has held preliminary talks with the city. He said the city is interested and sees the potential for providing additional downtown parking and serving the former Chamber of Commerce lot, where developers are examining the feasibility of building a hotel."It's a necessity if they want to help develop across the street for retail and hotel," Scheel said about the garage.Scheel said a bridge from the second floor of the garage to the hotel, similar to what he has developed at Union Street Station in Gainesville, is a possibility.Albert Peek, who is partners with his son, Bryce, and Kirk Boone, in Ocala Development, is proposing to build a boutique hotel on the former chamber site, which lies east of the downtown square and north of the Bank of America parking lot."It's great that local individuals own that building now and their vision for downtown and the city's vision for downtown can move forward," Albert Peek said about the New Horizons group. "I think it's critical for our hotel project that the parking needs to be contiguous to this."But Scheel is not sure what type of agreement, if any, could be reached with the city, whether the city would build the garage and have a long-term lease or what."We are open to ideas right now," Scheel said. "It's kind of in the city's hands right now."Marc Mondell, the city's executive director of community development, said Ocala Development has indicated it would like the city to build a parking garage to support the hotel project, should it become feasible."There was a number of things they requested of the city for them to move forward. One of those was the construction of a parking garage on the Bank of America site," Mondell said. "We have been considering it ever since (the city) council approved the agreement with Ocala Development. It's something we have been working on."Mondell said the city never had any intention of buying the bank site, but has been investigating the possibility of building a garage on the site."The idea we have a very prominent piece of property in our downtown that's locally owned and controlled — I think that's exciting," Mondell said. "I think the possibility and prospect for us to sit down and reach some kind of agreement is probably better than previously."He said the city tried unsuccessfully to reach an agreement with Gramercy Property, the previous owner. The change in ownership could move the project forward."I think it looks promising, but there's a lot of work and a lot of discussion," Mondell said. "We are not at the point of disclosing any of the details of our discussion."The Beck Group, the city of Ocala's consultant, completed a parking garage feasibility study in December 2011 and recommended five sites for a garage. The Bank of America site was considered the best but, because of title complications on that property, Beck recommended another site instead.Subsequent events made the garage project less pressing. For one thing, a land deal with the recommended property owner did not develop. Then the White-Challis proposed mixed-use development on the former chamber lot never materialized. Without that project, and faced with shrinking revenues, the city mothballed the garage project.Now that Ocala Development's hotel project is pending, there is renewed interest in building a garage. Ocala Development has until March 1, 2014, to complete its feasibility study.Whether the hotel project goes forward or not, New Horizon has secured the prime downtown garage location."We are very proud of the purchase," Scheel said. "We have other holdings downtown."Those include Harry's restaurant and the Marion Block Building, Mark's Prime Steakhouse and the building it is in, and the building that houses the Melting Pot restaurant.Contact Susan Latham Carr at 867-4156 or susan.carr@starbanner.com.